Tesla Owners May Experience Permanent Charger Throttling

Tesla Model S P100D (Credit: Tesla)

The ugly side of electric cars is already starting to rear its head, but Tesla is apparently all over the issue.

Recently, the folks at Electrek spotted a forum post at Tesla Motors Club where an owner noticed his Model S’ charge rate seemed to permanently dip from 120 kW to just 75 to 90kW. Alarmed, the owner brought this to Tesla’s attention, and apparently, this is just part of the lifecycle of an electric car.

Like many lithium-ion-powered items, the batteries degrade over time, as they are only rated for so many charge-discharge cycles. Apparently, this man has hit this point, and the Model S’ software is slowing degradation by limiting its charging speed – the faster the battery charges, the quicker it will degrade.

Apparently, the owner has used CHAdeMODC fast-charge stations hundreds of times and Tesla’s Supercharger network more than 50 times. While these chargers are designed to top off Tesla batteries, most users do complete fill-ups at a slower pace in their own homes. The repeated fast charging is what led to the quicker degradation of this vehicle’s battery, according to the post.

Tesla had no issue with admitting this is just part of owning an electric car, but it is working hard to minimize the inconvenience of this issue or eliminate it altogether.

According to Tesla, the reduced charging speed will only slow charging time by about five minutes, and this issue impacts less than 1% of the Tesla models on the road today.

Will this battery degradation make you think twice about buying an EV? Let us know in the comments.